Knights equipment man Chris Maton knows all about winners

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The London Knights equipment manager knew he should get to work preparing for a trip to the Memorial Cup in Saskatoon before knowing if the team would make it past Barrie.

“You're basically packing up the (dressing) room and taking it with you,” said Maton, part of a winning club everywhere he has helped. “It takes a lot of time and you want a head start. But you don't want to jinx the team by doing it early.”

Maton approached head coach Dale Hunter ahead of Monday's Game 7 of the OHL final.

“Dale laughed and said, 'We're still day-to-day,'” Maton said. “After the game, we were all having a big laugh about it.”

The Knights came back from 3-1 down in the series to win at the last possible second, and then Maton went to work getting things ready.

He had a day-and-a-half to get the Knights packed and on the plane.

“Last year, we won it in five so we had some time to get ready to go to Quebec,” Maton said. “This time, we don't.”

The Knights don't have time on their side this year. They open the Cup Friday night against the extremely well-rested host Saskatoon Blades, who bowed out of the playoffs after four games.

London is still largely in day-to-day mode. They expect to name their starting goalie after practice on Thursday.

History, too, is a bit of an issue.

Only three OHL teams who needed seven games to win the J. Ross Robertson Cup have gone on to Memorial Cup titles over the last 40 years.

London native Eric Lindros and the 1990 Oshawa Generals are the most recent. The 1979 Peterborough Petes and '75 Toronto Marlboros did it, too.

The Edmonton Oil Kings, last year's Western league champs, needed the full seven to knock off Portland in the 2012 final. They were the first team to bow out of Shawinigan last spring.

The Knights have a quick turnaround, but they're heading into 'Toon town with plenty of momentum.

“This playoffs was such a grind this year,” Maton said, “and after we won, the players and coaches spent some time together alone in the room before the families joined them. The players were dancing around and having fun. It was special to see.”

The challenge now for London is to find a way to dance again on championship Sunday next week in the bowels of Credit Union Centre, where ex-Knight John Carlson scored the world junior gold-medal-winning overtime goal for the United States three years ago.

OHL teams rarely fare well in Cups out west.

The last two teams to win in a WHL-hosted Cup are Windsor in 2010 at Brandon and the Jacques Martin-coached Guelph Platers in 1986 at Portland, Ore.

The tournament schedule – opening against the host and then back-to-back games against the other two league champs – is a bear.

“I can imagine what it will be like with their fans in the first game,” Dale Hunter said.

Maton packed up London's green sweaters, which they wore to win the OHL title, for designated home games. The Knights will wear their cream-coloured jerseys for assigned road tilts.

They lost the Cup final in green last year.

But they'll have time to worry about what colour they've got on in the final once they get there.

Tyler Ferry of the London Knights gives one last wave to the crowd of London fans who escorted the team right onto the tarmac of London Airport Wednesday May 15, 2013 before boarding the Air Canada jet for a flight to the 2013 Memorial Cup in Saskatoon.
MIKE HENSEN/The London Free Press/QMI AGENCY